TY - JOUR T1 - Late-breaking abstract: A novel method to detect infection in COPD exacerbations: The electronic nose JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P2566 AU - Hanaa Shafiek AU - Jose Merino AU - Federico Fiorentino AU - Carla López AU - Oriol Sibila AU - Bernat Togores AU - Ivan de Paul AU - Jaume Segura AU - Antonio Oliver AU - Borja Cosío Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P2566.abstract N2 - Background: Electronic nose (e-nose) is a novel technique based on the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) breath prints in exhaled air. We hypothesized that e-nose could identify specific VOCs breath pattern for infection in acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) and distinguish it from the stable state.Objectives: To determine the validity of e-nose in detecting infection of AECOPD.Methods: The study enrolled 53 AECOPD patients, 18 COPD with pneumonia and 29 stable COPD. Sputum sample was collected for microbiological evaluation. Exhaled air was collected with a Tedlar bag which was processed by a Cynarose320 e-nose. Breath-prints were analyzed by Linear Discriminant Analysis with "One Out" technique.Results: Pathogenic microorganisms were detected in 37% of AECOPD, 43.7% of COPD with pneumonia and 17% of stable COPD. Thirty percent of sputum samples were invalid for microbiologic analysis. Breath-prints from AECOPD were significantly distinguishable from stable COPD in the presence of microorganism (p=0.036; 84.4% sensitivity;70% specificity), but better in absence of infection (p=0.014; 90.6% sensitivity; 80% specificity). However, breath-prints from COPD with pneumonia failed to show significant difference from AECOPD in the presence of microorganism (p=0.097); but they were significantly distinguishable in absence of infection (p=0.013; 87.5% sensitivity;77.8% specificity) and from stable COPD (specificity 90%; p<0.05).Conclusion: Different breath-prints related to infection can be detected by the e-nose. AECOPD with/without pneumonia showed distinguishable breath-prints compared to stable COPD even if microorganism is not cultured. ER -